Chocolate Chicken Recipe

Whoa! Cocoa Coq au Vin

Mast Brothers Chocolate — an artisanal, bean-to-bar chocolate company in New York's Brooklyn borough — released its first cookbook last week, entitled Mast Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook ($40). Flipping through the thick pages and stunning photography, you'll see recipes for rich chocolate desserts like ice cream and soufflé, but prepare to be truly mesmerized by the savory chocolate recipes like chocolate scallops and cocoa coq au vin.

Coq au vin, or chicken with wine, is a classic French dish, where a whole chicken or rooster is braised in a red wine sauce. This particular recipe calls for the addition of cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate.

Click here for the full recipe.

The sauce, loaded with whole mushrooms and pancetta, reduces down into a thick gravy that I admittedly slurped up like soup before adding the chicken. In case you're wondering, the dark chocolate and cocoa nibs add a hint of tannic, bitter, and roasted flavor to the red wine sauce.

If you love thyme, then go ahead and sprinkle another teaspoon in the pot. The thyme flavor is extremely subtle in this recipe, and mine could have used a sprig or two more.

The chicken will come out of the oven falling off the bones. Serve it over rice with several ladles of the red wine sauce.

Directions

To make the coq au vin: Preheat oven to 400ºF. In a large stockpot over medium heat, sweat onion and garlic in butter until translucent. Add pancetta, and cook until lightly browned. Add carrots, celery, and tomato paste, and stir. Add mushrooms and red wine, and stir. Add flour, and stir. Cook until liquid has reduced by half. Add chicken stock, nibs, chocolate, cocoa powder, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, and stir. Remove chicken from marinade, and add to the pot. Discard marinade.

Place uncovered pot in oven for 20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325ºF. Cook for one more hour or until internal temperature reads 165ºF.